So as many of you know, actually many of you don't know, but I've been wasting a lot of time in Skyrim for the past couple months as a replacement time-waster to what is now a rather boring WoW.
Of course, I hopped ship and bought the ESO Imperial thingamajig and was delighted to find out there was early access to the game. So, for those who wish to know what Truny thinks of the game, here's what I have to say so far.
Note, I am only level 7:
The World
Big and beautiful with treasures and gathering mats scattered in various nooks and crannies, and it is massive. I would say just the starting zone is almost as big as the entirety of Pandaria...and when you zoom out to the world map, there are probably a good THIRTY of these zones....too bad I am too low level to explore high level areas, more on that later.
There's a lot of exploration, be it for random books in bookshelves, special lore books or Skyshards, which are super shiny rocks that give you a skill point once you've accumulated three.
There are also locked treasure chests scattered around the world and I would recommend you allocate some of your wealth to acquiring lock-picks. Chests give a lot of exp and usually contain better than normal stuff. I was disappointed they went back to the Oblivion style of having to tinker around with five keys, but now that I've gotten the hang of it it's pretty fun to mess around with, especially when other MOFOS are running towards the same chest! You essentially have to compress the lock until it JUST begins to jiggle, then let go!
The Classes
So we all know you can choose from Dragonknight (DK), Sorcerer, Templar, or Nightblade. Sure, they give access to three different skill trees to choose from. So how I see it is this is your BASE but the game is so so super flexible.
See here, my character is a "sorcerer" who utilizes the dots and summoning, but...wears and uses heavy armor perks, and also uses 2H weapon skills.
A battlemage!
For those who have raided with my warlock should know that all my ranting and raving that warlocks should wear heavy armor and use the 2H weapons that don't drop was a persistent demand on my side, and these demands have been met!
I can cast my DOT, charge into battle, swing my sword and cast my 2nd finisher DOT, it's beautiful! I also have a summoned pet, a Clannfear, i'd prefer him to be a Doomguard, but..hey...
Anyways, the "classes" themselves provide what I call "special skills" but I believe the true core of gameplay comes from how you set your skills and perks from all the different weapon and armor skills, racial skills, skills from various guidls you can join, and if you're not the violent fighty type you can even devote all your skill points to crafting, given you grind enough.
The...Game?
So how does this game fare so far as an MMO or as an Elder Scrolls game?
Well, a bit of both but not too much. Again I'm only level 7 and I have recently gone on a resource gathering frenzy.
In terms of ES, the UI will be very familiar to ES players, and the MMO portion comes from the fact that you get exp by questing rather than just playing.
I think one part that hinders the game...if that can even be said is because it's an MMO everything around you does not automatically scale to your level. So you can't just stroll across the planet and expect to be able to handle everything. It's limiting but what can you do right? Explore more when you're higher level!
Crafting
Ok last topic, since my reserve of information is pretty much all used up. The various professions are interesting and potentially grindy, but then again you can't expect to max everything right away, this is ES, not WoW.
Right away you can gather mats without the need of special tools and you can craft right away provided you have the mats.
I'd have to say I have never felt so self sufficient in an MMO than in ESO. I've crafted my own gear (though thanks to a friend for crafting sets of stuff for me before I can even equip the stuff), enchanted my own gear, made my own little buff foods and even attempted alchemy, F*CK alchemy it hates me but I must continue to look for plants!
Surprisingly according to the guides, and they are right....you get more crafting exp from "deconstructing" shit other people have created than actually making your own shit...
Enchanting and Alchemy are the bane of my existence, for enchanting you must find three different rune types, which are random resource nodes around the world that look like little shrines. You interact with it by carving out the rune. You combine a pentagon/square/circle one and then The Voice of God himself reads out the various runes that you are trying to use "Joda, Meipe, Deseca" (or something like that), and I find this extremely entertaining. Though I am always short one shape!
Anyways, I'll update as needed, not sure if this will transform into a WoW/ESO blog or not!
Turny the Battlemage Khajit
